Many presentations are presented by people who suffer from a disease I call “business speak” which grates on me like fingernails on a chalk board.

“Business speak” words, phases and jargon, tossed around by a writer or a lecturer/speaker/presenter, as shorthand, make the article/presentation tedious to read or to listen.  Often the trite terms are used out of context when a more precise word should be used.  Most importantly, the use of business speak removes all originality or creativity from the article or presentation.  It’s like saying “You know… you know… you know…”

Business speak phrases to be banned:

• “thinking out of the box”- this ridiculously overused phrase has become so ubiquitous that its mere use, ironically, now demonstrates that the writer or speaker is not thinking outside the box, but instead, is locked up inside the box, going down the same old rout path.
• “siloing”- too often used as a shorthand from describing the problem with individuals or agencies working independently when, for whatever reason, they should be working together, for an integrated solution to some problem.  However, the term is most often used to describe a relationship between two or more entities, without diving more deeply into the issues of why there is independence among entities.
• “Just north of…” – (to describe a value, number, or figure, e.g. the national debt is just north of one trillion dollars).  Use it once in a presentation and I am fine with it.  Use it “north of one time” and now you have annoyed me with your lack of creativity.
• “mission critical”- again, use it once.  Cool.  More than once, not so good.
• “workspace” (”space”) -  just overly used.  Often in discussions which are overly general, superficial and vague.  If you want to grab someone’s attention, at some point you need to be specific.  So focus, focus, focus.  Otherwise your article or presentation become business fluff.
• “color blind society” – (to describe a world in which discrimination does not exist)  As someone who suffers from the affliction of colorblindness, I find it offensive to use the term, in such a heartless manner.  All kidding aside, the ironic thing is that it is used in a scientifically, incorrect manner.  Even if, arguendo, we were all color blind, we still could distinguish black from white.  In other words, we still could distinguish a black person from a white person.  So, in fact, the phrase “color blind society” is not only offensive but completely inaccurate to describe a world in which one would not make determinations based on color of ones skin, with the proviso that people are not red-brown or blue-green.

Now that you know what “patent pending” means (i.e. a patent application is pending), a more complicated, and not so straightforward matter is to know what, exactly, is being patented.  In the case of software, is it the entire program, or just a small, function or individual application within the complete software package.

Further complicating matters, the country where the patent application is pending may also be unclear.  Therefore, one cannot simply consult a central patent application database to discern what is being patented.  Typically, one needs to conduct a patent search using various different databases, most often done by a trained professional such as a search agent, with the results reviewed by a patent attorney. Therefore, it is recommended that you consult your friendly neighborhood patent attorney.

Look closely at a product, the package of a piece of software or even in the small print at the bottom of a website, and you may see two small words, “patent pending.” But what exactly does this mean? In the case of a website, does this mean a patent will soon issue, is the whole website to be patented, or only a small aspect, perhaps just a small applet? And, when I can I put “patent pending” on my product or software.

“Patent Pending” means that an application for a patent application has been submitted to a national patent office, e.g. the US Patent Office. At least the applicant believes that the patent application covers a new, non-obvious and useful invention, e.g. a device or process. The patent application can be a provisional or non-provisional application filed in the United States or an international PCT application.  Due to an involved examination process, there is no guarantee that a pending patent application will ever issue as a patent. Further, provisional patent applications expire after one year, so if another provisional or a non-provisional patent covering the same invention is not filed within that year, the subject matter or invention of the provisional ceases to be considered “patent pending.”

See future posts for more on the distinction between provisional, non-provisional and international patent application in subsequent posts.